How do you stay sane while querying agents?

[CakeRage]

I finished my first book earlier this year (after saying for years I was going to write it), and started submitting to agents 3 weeks ago.

I’ve had a couple of replies, both really encouraging, but ultimately both rejections, and I feel like I’m losing my marbles. How do you keep it together while waiting? Not sure I can take the emotional rollercoaster

The first agent replied within hours to ask for the full manuscript, emailed again the following day to say she was halfway through and absolutely blown away by it, then a few days later to say she did love it, but thought it needed a few changes making. I revised the whole thing (10,000 extra words of work), then she replied just to say it wasn’t working, and she wouldn’t be taking it further.

To be honest I’ve been pretty gutted by it. How do you stop the little judgy voice in your head which tells you you were an idiot for getting your hopes up?

The second agent replied to say she was really impressed by my writing, but didn’t feel I was a good fit for her list at the moment, and recommended another agent (different agency) who she thought would like it. I handled that one much better, even though I guess it was more of an abrupt no.

Please tell me how you cope with this stage - or come commiserate with me at its horribleness!

(Sorry for my crazed rambling - feeling all my feelings this week!)

Thanks everyone. That particular request actually came from the agency's reader, not an individual agent, because the reader looks at everything first and then calls in stuff she thinks the agents might like. I'm wondering if there's no feedback because there was never personal interest from an agent, which I did have with the other two requests. But most likely they just don't have time to find something to say.

Finally a reply! Ok, it was another rejection, but I weirdly prefer that to silence.

Starting to assume that they’ll all be nos now, and that the early interest was a fluke, like someone else said. Trying to be positive and think of the reader reviews I’ve had, but it’s difficult. Some days I just want to sack it all off as a bad job!

Sorry you've had a rejection, Cake. I know exactly what you mean about it being preferable to silence, though.

Still miserably silent here. Sick of false email alarms - I hear an email drop into my phone and get all excited, and then it's just another marketing email.

I do wonder if I'd be happier if I simply wrote for pleasure, or went down the self-publishing route. In my more pessimistic moments I find myself thinking that conventional publishing is an almost totally closed shop, unless you have existing media connections; have the time and money to attend a prestigious writing course; or are a bona fide literary genius.

Absolute radio silence here too, but sent off two new queries! And rewrote pitch!

Also have just formed the ambition to be rejected 100 times before giving up.

Now going to work on the outline for new book... I'm trying to write something fun and fast in two months, kind of like my own personal nanowrimo, because with the submitted book, it actually took me years to write. Also had some ideas on the next REAL book which I'll likely start in August.

Onwards we go...!

Onwards sounds good!

I’m halfway through chapter one of book two, and have been for about two weeks, haha. I need to pick up the pace if it’s going to go anywhere. The NaNoWriMo idea is a good one - I wrote the first 50k words of my book last November, then did literally nothing on it for 2 months, then realised I need a deadline and wrote the next 40k in February. It definitely helps focus you!

Preparing - if you’re looking into self-publishing, the 20booksto50k Facebook group someone recommended on here is really useful. I’ve been following it and although there have been a few wtf moments (like the woman who wrote a book in FIVE DAYS?!?!) there are loads of links to good information and everyone seems really friendly.

Does anyone know anything about Harper Impulse? I came across it yesterday and it looks like a pretty good fit for me in terms of genre. It’s a branch of Harper Collins so presumably legit, and they accept unagented submissions so thought it was worth a go!

Another rejection yesterday - agent doesn't think there's enough of a hook. Tally now stands at 11 rejections (including one of the full), and waiting on 13. 11 with the partial, 2 with the full.

I feel the well is being poisoned with negativity so I've gone back to Morning Pages which usually help me get out of a creative slump.

Do you find the morning pages help a lot, NJ? I had a boss once who swore by them and always told me I should try it, but to be honest I never quite got my arse in gear enough.

Sorry about your rejection, also. The hook thing is exactly what I was told on my full rejection. Although I get the impression it’s more of a hindrance for marketing than for a reader’s enjoyment of your book. So I guess it’s more a business decision, really, although I know that doesn’t make it any easier to hear.

Certainly none of the people who’ve read mine have complained about a lack of hook. Even my dad, a die-hard crime reader who HATES ‘women’s books’ with a passion and was only going to read the first chapter to say that he had, ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. I know he’s my dad, and I should probably allow for a certain amount of bias there, but he is also definitely not a man who does anything he doesn’t want to!

What's Morning Pages?

I hadn't heard of Harper Impulse, but I had a look following your post. I'd also be interested to hear any experiences.

If you think Harper Impulse is a good fit, have you look at Carina? You can submit to them directly. One of my Mumsnet friends wrote four books for them.

Just looked at Carina - I don't think it would be a fit for my present novel, but it might be for one I abandoned a few years ago - whether I can bear to dig it out again is another question!

Oh, I’ll look into Carina, thank you

After my days of desolation I got another full request today! It was funny, because I was so busy that I didn’t check my phone for most of the day for the first time in ages and then when I looked at it at 5pm, it was waiting for me. Trying not to get too excited as I’ve been here before, but happy about finally having good news to report. Obviously I immediately emailed all the silent parties

Oooh, fingers crossed for you, Cake! Hoping this is the agent that will fall in love with your work.

Silence, silence, silence here, so I have cracked and sent another submission - that's 9 out in total.

I cringed when I was sending it, as the agent's first name happens to be the same as the main character of my novel. I'm terrified she'll think this is some device I'm using to get noticed (changing protagonist's name to match different agents). I almost added a line to my covering letter to explain that it isn't, but I thought better of it.

Merryweather Morning Pages are a technique from the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. You sit down and write three pages longhand, ideally first thing in the morning. Like journaling.

Cake yes, I do find morning pages helpful, to work through whatever's happening, to keep the writing muscle working even when I'm not working on a project, and because all sorts of ideas pop into my head. I'm writing atm in an exercise book with wide margins and if I get a good idea I put something in the margin so I can come back to those points without reading through the whole thing again.

So happy to hear you have another full request Cake and really hope there will be more to come!

Unfortunately the first agent to ask for the full rejected my novel today. I suspected she'd lost interest as she's had it a while, but still gutted. She doesn't give feedback as it's too subjective and other agents may disagree with her.

Also another rejection of the partial but I wasn't too bothered about that. It's rejections of the full which really sting because you can't help but invest a lot of hope in them.

Anyway, this has turned my plans for the weekend upside down. Only one agency has the full now and if they reject I'll be back to square one, so I have to do another round of queries while I can still say someone's reading the full.

I feel very frustrated. The advice for aspiring authors talks about the quality of your writing as though that's all that matters. I've got so much praise for my writing from agents, but only rejections so far. I really don't know where to go from here.

Preparing at the idea of changing your character's name to the agent's! I'm sure she won't mind.

I'm sorry to hear one of your fulls has come back, NJ. Hopefully you'll feel a bit more positive after you've spent the weekend working on some more submissions.

She doesn't give feedback as it's too subjective and other agents may disagree with her. I understand what she means, but something would surely be helpful, even if only a one-liner.

I'm finding the silence very disheartening. My partial is with a couple of agents that I had really high hopes of - my novel seemed to fit right into their wish-lists (based on all the interviews/podcasts etc. I had researched) and yet I am just getting nothing. I keep telling myself my pitch can't be that hopeless or I wouldn't have had a full at the beginning, but since then, I haven't had a sniff of interest.

Oh NJ, so sorry about your full. It really is the worst, isn’t it? I hope you get better news from the last one with the full.

Annoying that she wouldn’t give any feedback, either. I understand where she’s coming from, but she could have said ‘I think xxxxx, but it’s subjective, so other agents may disagree’.

The advice for aspiring authors talks about the quality of your writing as though that's all that matters. I've got so much praise for my writing from agents, but only rejections so far. I really don't know where to go from here.

Totally agree, I’ve experienced the same. And I know from being a bookworm that badly written, easily marketable books get published all the time, so it must be that the gimmick trumps the writing quality at least some of the time. Frustrating, but what can you do?

Sorry Preparing, but I did laugh at the idea of you changing you MC’s name to suit every agent. Unless it’s a particularly unusual name, and then I guess I would have worried about it too

Yes, I was disappointed not to get feedback. On the plus side, at least she didn't take months to get back to me. I would rather not get an agent than get an agent and not find a publisher, it just prolongs the agony, so perhaps this is all for the best.

My partial is with a couple of agents that I had really high hopes of - my novel seemed to fit right into their wish-lists (based on all the interviews/podcasts etc. I had researched) and yet I am just getting nothing.

I had this too. All the agents who said they were looking for a novel like mine have either rejected it or not replied.

And I know from being a bookworm that badly written, easily marketable books get published all the time

Totally agree, and that's one of the things I find most frustrating too. I'm the sort of person who'll read absolutely anything, and I often buy a handful of books from a charity shop to keep myself going, without looking at them particularly closely beforehand.

I find so many where the prose is lacklustre, the characters unconvincing, the plot flimsy or derivative. I find the occasional book that's so badly written, I want to throw it across the room. How does this stuff get published, when the market is so crowded that most writers can't get over the first hurdle?

On a lighter note, if by any miracle I get a full request from my most recent submission, I'll let you know in case anyone wants to try changing their MC's name in future .

I would absolutely love if you got an offer on the basis of your MC’s name!

Not convinced my book is marketable. I had a browse around my local Waterstones today for the first time in a long time and can't quite find anything that it would sit comfortably alongside. The problem is there are so many dynamics to it - two central protagonists (one contemporary, one historic). Contemporary written in first person (reflecting back, a bit memoirish) historic part in third person (flips between the two but has connected storylines). Gritty subjects tackled. Yep, not sure where it would fit, I've got a feeling self publishing is going to be the way forward. There is something mildly Eleanor Oliphantish about it if anything, I suppose but only mildy.

Oh and good luck to all those who have sent full requests out recently x

The problem is there are so many dynamics to it - two central protagonists (one contemporary, one historic). Contemporary written in first person (reflecting back, a bit memoirish) historic part in third person (flips between the two but has connected storylines).

There are lots of books like this in commercial fiction, with contemporary/historic dual timelines - e.g, Barbara Erskine, Kate Morton. Is yours more literary? Darker?

Just watched this video which is the best I’ve seen so far regarding the hook issue. Thought it might be helpful for those of us suffering with it! It really clearly explains what agents are looking for when they talk about the hook and how to make sure it’s in there:

I wish I’d have found this two months ago, to be honest!

Hi Norma, yes, it is this sort of format and you're right, it is darker.